If you’re involved in any Marvel fan space on social media, you’ve probably come across the term “M-She-U.” While some people use it as a positive remark to celebrate women heroes, it’s generally used in a derogatory way for people (okay, let’s be honest – men) to claim that there are too many women in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or that the men in these stories are being replaced by women. While plenty of women are finally getting their own stories within the MCU, they are still outnumbered by men so this complaint is null. Women have always and will always have a place in the comic book world. Perhaps Stan Lee himself said it best:
But let’s not wave our hand at the argument and move on. Let’s take a look at women in the MCU. Agent Carter was the first solo female project for the Marvel Cinematic Universe under their Marvel Television banner in 2015 following the Marvel One-Shot in 2013 of the same name. Ant-Man and The Wasp was the first Marvel film to have a female superhero in the title in July 2018. Finally, Captain Marvel became the first solo female superhero film in the MCU in 2019, 11 years after the franchise began. Of course, they weren’t the first woman superheroes in the MCU. That honor goes to Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson who made her debut in the 2010 film Iron Man 2. Black Widow, however, didn’t get her own film until the character had already died in Avengers: Endgame, making her 2021 movie a seemingly low-stakes prequel. Now in 2022, new solo female projects will be debuting with the Disney+ series’ Ms. Marvel and She Hulk: Attorney at Law. More are planned for the future, including the film The Marvels and Disney+ series’ Echo and Ironheart slated for 2023. But why did it take so long for women to become front and center? To answer this question, we have to look at the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Past of Marvel Studios
In 2005, Ike Perlmutter became the CEO of Marvel Comics which meant that he would oversee Marvel Entertainment as well and continued even after the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company in 2009. Perlmutter reportedly didn’t believe in the marketability of women superheroes. In 2015, he reportedly made the decision to scale-back Black Widow-themed merchandise, claiming that products focused on “girl” superheroes don’t sell. In 2014, in a leaked email, he seemed to dismiss the idea of female-led superhero movies with a list of underperforming examples but the context was never made clear. It’s been reported over the years that Perlmutter would object to any women-focused (or other diverse) superhero films. Bob Iger, former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, wrote in his memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime,
“I’ve been in the business long enough to have heard every old argument in the book, and I’ve learned that old arguments are just that: old, and out of step with where the world is and where it should be. We had a chance to make a great movie and to showcase an underrepresented segment of America, and those goals were not mutually exclusive. I called Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks and ordered that we put both Black Panther and Captain Marvel into production.”
Also in the memoir, Iger claims that there was tension between Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige which ultimately led to Feige becoming Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer in 2015. This gave Feige control over creative decisions not only for Marvel’s films but also their television series and comics. His promotion also led to the dissolution of the Marvel Creative Committee which was a group of people, reportedly made up of Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley, Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and president of Marvel Entertainment Alan Fine. This committee would give notes during the developmental process of films but also, allegedly caused roadblocks for directors.
It’s no surprise that since Kevin Feige’s creative takeover that the MCU has become more diverse than ever before with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Eternals just to name a few. It seems that now we’re finally getting the MCU that it was truly meant to be all along.
Are Women Taking Over?
For the sake of the argument, let’s take into consideration all of the Marvel films and television shows that are part of the MCU. Whether those shows are canon or not isn’t the argument being made so we’ll not touch on that part. Not including team-ensemble films (The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Eternals), there have been 18 films released since 2008 where the titular character was a male superhero. There have been 3 films with a woman superhero in the title. Again, not counting team-ensembles (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Defenders, The Runaways, Inhumans) there are 8 released television shows with male titular characters and 4 with women heroes in the title, though 2 of those are shared with a male character. This means that out of these films and movies, 26.92% of them feature a woman as the main character.
Some may argue that they aren’t talking about the past, they’re talking about the future. If we include projects that have yet to premiere and announced projects, that brings the percentage up to 36.11%. Still less than half of the women in the MCU are titular characters for now and in the foreseeable future. For transparency’s sake, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were included in the male numbers.
Are The Men Being Replaced?
Another claim that’s being made is that the male heroes are being replaced by “woke” female versions of these characters, though several of them have existed in the comics for years already. Sylvie is said to be a combination of Sylvie Lushton, who made her comic debut in 2009 and Amora the Enchantress, who first appeared in 1964. With Season 2 of Loki set to debut next year, it’s safe to say that Loki hasn’t been replaced. Kate Bishop’s first comic appearance was in 2005. Clint Barton never hinted at retirement in Hawkeye so we’re sure to see him again in the future. She-Hulk’s comic debut was in 1979. While we don’t know Bruce Banner’s future, it’s likely that his story will continue past She-Hulk and Jennifer Walters will take her own path.
Some characters have been created in the past decade. Riri Williams was introduced in Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3 #7 in 2016. As we all know, Iron Man is dead, so maybe she is taking over the armored person spot, but Don Cheadle is still set to star in Armor Wars as War Machine so maybe less of a replacement and more of an addition. Despite the belief that Captain Carter was first introduced in What If…?, she actually debuted in the comics first in 2018. Steve Rogers as Captain America seemingly retired and went back to the past (though some believe he may be living on the moon), and Sam Wilson as Captain America is set to star in Captain America 4. Jane Foster was first introduced in 1962 but it wasn’t until 2014 that she became The Mighty Thor. Taika Waititi, director of Thor: Love and Thunder has said that the film isn’t a passing of the torch between Thor and Jane Foster.
There have been a handful of characters whose genders have been swapped over the years, most of them being in Eternals with Sprite, Ajak, and Makkari. A few others have been changed as well, like The Ancient One, Ghost, Mar-Vell, and most recently The Scarlet Scarab in Moon Knight. Changing these characters doesn’t necessarily mean that men are being replaced just because they feel like it. It likely means that women were better suited as the characters for the stories that they wanted to tell.
So, What’s The Deal?
It’s great that women are finally being properly implemented into the MCU. But this isn’t a takeover. They’re just now starting to catch up. Personally, I’d love to see at least 50% of the stories centered around women moving forward. There are incredible stories that exist in the comics centered around women that would be amazing to see on screen. While some claim that it’s a feminist, woke agenda, the truth is that women exist and they belong in these spaces just as much as men do. So while these M-She-U guys may be loud, they’re also probably not the majority. According to Morning Consult, 47% of Marvel fans are women which yes, leaves 53% as men but it’s safe to say that all 53% of these men don’t feel negatively toward women superheroes.
The MCU does need to change, but only in the way of bringing in more female superheroes and more of their stories. They also need to stop making so many origin stories as Disney+ series where they can be ignored easier. Put the women on the big screen, too. Let’s not forget that Captain Marvel made over 1 billion dollars worldwide.
The problem with the M-She-U is that it doesn’t exist yet, but hopefully one day it will.
